Re: (erielack) EL empty car waybill

["Paul Brezicki" <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net>]

Pat and List,

I checked with former EL employee Ed Zech, and he provided the following 
information concerning use of waybills in interchange moves in the 1970's.

Generally there was a single waybill for each car, created by the 
originating RR along with an IBM (or equivalent) card. The latter was for 
that RR's information system, while the waybill stayed with the car. The 
stack of waybills for all cars on the train, along with the wheel report, 
was transferred to each successive conductor along the route. Conveyance of 
waybills at the interchange point depended on the nature of the interchange. 
In cases where the entire train was interchanged, as in a runthrough or 
transfer run, the waybills were handed to the conductor or delivered 
directly to the yard office. In your example Pat, the waybill for that 
reefer was in the stack for SFE-100 at Corwith that was picked up by the EL 
conductor at that location. At more remote junctions where cars were placed 
on an interchange track for eventual pickup by the receiving carrier's 
train, the waybills were placed in a locked "bill box" at that location.

Every car on a train had to have a waybill. There were four types: Prepaid, 
Collect, Empty car and "Car movement only, not for revenue purposes". This 
last was used in situations where the regular waybill was not received in 
time for train departure from interchange point. This was often the case 
with MILW-98 at Chicago. A new waybill was created by the receiving carrier 
when the relevant information was received from the delivering carrier. In 
the case of Chicago interchange, this was performed at Marion, so all cars 
were sent east from there with a regular waybill. With Prepaid bills, the 
revenue was collected by the originating carrier which was then responsible 
for distribution of revenue to each of the other participating carriers. 
With Collect bills, collection and distribution was the responsibility of 
the terminating carrier. These included certain movements of  commodities 
where the lading was sold while the car was in transit. This included lumber 
and perishables originating on the west coast, and more locally, soda ash 
produced at the Solvay plant in Syracuse. A portion of those cars were sent 
to Taylor yard in Scranton and held there on a storage track until the 
contents were sold. (I'm not clear on whether this event would generate a 
new waybill or if the new data was added to the original). The shipper would 
be billed for demurrage for each day the car was stored.

Today of course, there are no waybills since all relevant data is exchanged 
electronically, facilitated by common or at least, compatible computer 
systems. In EL days, each RR used its own computer system; it was generally 
incompatible with those of other carriers. Some of you probably recall this 
was one of the problems that fouled up the PC merger: the PRR and NYC 
computers were not compatible. Today, storage of cars pending consignment 
appears to be most common for chemical shipments; there are entire 
Storage-In-Transit (SIT) yards on the Gulf coast used for this purpose.

This is probably more information than you need, but I find the whole 
process to be very interesting.

Paul B


From: pat.moore_@_att.net
Subject: Re: (erielack) EL empty car waybill

Outstanding, guys!

Thanks for fixing me up with what I need for my operation.  This is really 
good stuff...

So, does anyone know if every freight car travelling on an EL train had to 
have an EL-issued waybill?  For example, if a load of produce from 
California was routed off the ATSF through Chicago and consigned to someone 
in NJ, would it have an ATSF-issued waybill or an EL waybill?  I'm trying to 
understand how this worked.

- - -pat moore


	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	http://EL-List.railfan.net/
	To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html

------------------------------